Phil Marsh intercepted a lax back pass, but the rock-solid Boston defence which has gone eight games without conceding a goal recovered making his shot difficult, and James McKeown made a comfortable stop in the end. Marsh got another chance minutes later when he burst through onto an excellent through ball from Craig Hobson, but McKeown pulled off a good diving stop. Lee Elam, too, found the home keeper on sparkling form when he received the ball of Hobson, cut inside and fired low to the corner, with McKeown getting down well.
Boston were getting good chances at the other end, and found Alan White and Joel Bembo-Lita in imperious form. Bembo-Lita forced Spencer Weir-Daly wide, and got a telling touch on the tight angled shot from the home Pilgrim's forward. Jan Budtz was tested by a Jason Lee cross that rapidly became a shot, forced into tipping it away from Anthony Church. Midway through the second half, Boston were looking the more likely to score, with Jamie Yates warming Budtz's hands before the mistake that cost Celtic the points. A long ball forward from Shaun Pearson evaded everybody. Budtz went to collect outside his area only for Yates to close him down quickly, dispossess the Celtic keeper and slot home for a bizarre goal to equal the bizarre goal against Alfreton. That goal put Boston top of the table replacing Alfreton.
Celtic came out looking more dangerous at the start of the second half, and enjoyed much of the possession, although Jason Lee was handed a free header off a free kick that he put well over the bar at the start of the half. There was a good shout for a penalty turned down when Jellyman appeared to handle in the box, with a corner the only result. There was another corner after Connor Jennings cut inside and fired off a dangerous low shot that was cut out, Alan White coming up for the corner and thumping his header the wrong side of the post.
Celtic's best move of the match saw Andy McWilliams send Elam on his way down the wing, he had the beating of his man and found Hobson with a deft diagonal ball, Hobson found Marsh with a single touch that split Boston's defence apart, the shot was good and only a fine stop down by his post from the Boston keeper kept Boston in front.
As Celtic were starting to look like getting into gear, the Boston manager earned his wage by bringing on Ryan Semple, who shored up the Boston side, and evened out the proceedings. Within seconds of coming on, Budtz was flying to tip his twenty0five yard cross/shot over the bar, before Semple's corner found Pearson's head, requiring another good stop from the Celtic keeper. Moments later again, and Semple's cross on the run was met by a volley from Jason Lee, but the striker should have done better from eight yards out, sending the shot way over the bar.
Celtic soon regained the upper hand in terms of possession, and another great move saw Lloyd Ellams (on for Craig Hobson) turn superbly and feed the ball into the feet of Marsh to break past the offside trap, his shot was just beyond the finger tips of McKeown but looked to be heading wide until Jennings slid a good three yards across the surface of the pitch to wrap a foot around the ball, it was a tight angle and his shot hit the foot of the post.
Boston were struggling to get hold of the ball, but with a few minutes to go did manage to get it, and started to play for time. Having already been told to hurry up, and having been booked already for a foul on Greg Wilkinson in the first half, it was unwise of Newsham to continue to test the referee's patience and he saw a second yellow for time wasting, resulting in a red. This left an age of stoppage time, but Celtic, for all their possession, could not find the killer ball that would have snatched a point.
1 | McKeown, James | ||
2 | Cannoville, Lee | ||
3 | Jelleyman, Gareth | ||
4 | Church, Anthony | ||
5 | Pearson, Shaun | ||
6 | Murphy, Keiran | ||
7 | Yates, Jamie | > 67 | |
8 | Sleath, Danny | > 89 | |
9 | Lee, Jason | ||
10 | Weir-Daley, Spencer | > 84 | |
11 | Newsham, Marc | ||
12 | Semple, Ryan | < 67 | |
14 | Deane, Harry | ||
15 | Hunter, Miles | < 84 | |
16 | Cullingworth, James | ||
17 | Suarez, Mikel | < 89 |
1 | Budtz, Jan | ||
2 | Rule, Glenn | ||
3 | McWilliams, Andy | ||
4 | Bembo-Leta, Joel | ||
5 | White, Alan | ||
6 | Rea, Jack | > 57 | |
7 | Jennings, Connor | ||
8 | Wilkinson, Greg | ||
9 | Marsh, Phil | ||
10 | Hobson, Craig | > 66 | |
11 | Elam, Lee | > 66 | |
12 | Kay, Adam | < 57 | |
14 | Ellams, Lloyd | < 66 | |
15 | Law, Graeme | ||
16 | Warburton, Callum | < 66 | |
17 | Platt, Kristian |